J.M. Barrie
J.M. Barrie was a Scottish writer, best known for his novel Peter Pan. Connections In his early writing years, Barrie collaborated on a play with H.B. Marriott Watson, around 1890. In 1893, Barrie wrote the play Jane Annie for theater talent agent Richard D'Oyly Carte. However, the work failed, and Carte and Barrie did not continue to work together. Barrie was a lifelong, close friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, even before Barrie was a successful writer. Barrie wrote his play The Boy David in 1936 specifically for Elisabeth Bergner, who played David. Barrie was a friend of George Meredith, an early society patron of his. Barrie was a good friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, although the two men never met in person. At the time, Stevenson lived in Samoa, but they wrote many long letters back and forth. Barrie was a friend of George Bernard Shaw, who was his next-door neighbor in London for three years. Shaw also once worked with Barrie on a Western that Barrie wrote the script for and filmed. Another close friend of Barrie's was H.G. Wells. Wells even tried to intervene when Barrie's marriage began to fail, and acted as moral support during that difficult period in Barrie's life. Barrie was a friend of many literary and intellectual luminaries, including Thomas Hardy, Hugh Clifford, Rudyard Kipling, P.G. Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, G.K. Chesterton, A.A. Milne, E.W. Hornung, A.E.W. Mason, Walter Raleigh, E.V. Lucas, Maurice Hewlett, Owen Seaman, Bernard Partridge, Augustine Birrell, Paul du Chaillu, Henry Herbert La Thangue, George Cecil Ives, George Llewelyn Davies, and Alfred Tennyson. Barrie was a friend of the explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Joseph Thomson. He was the godfather of Scott's son, Peter Scott. When Scott wrote letters to seven friends in his final hours, on a fatal expedition to the South Pole, Barrie was one of the people that wrote to, asking him to take care of his son and wife, sculptor Kathleen Scott. It was a request that Barrie held true to, caring for Kathleen and Peter afterward. He was also so proud of the letter, he carried it with him in his pocket for the rest of his life. Barrie met with Broadway producer Charles Frohman in 1896, and the two men became close friends. Frohmann also acted as a financial backer. Frohmann was responsible for bringing the theatrical version of Peter Pan to England and the United States, and was also instrumental in the production of many other Barrie plays. Silent film actress Rita Jolivet was an acquaintance of Barrie's. During the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, she famously refused to take a place on a lifeboat, and instead stood on the ship's deck with a handful of others. She quoted Peter Pan, saying "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us." Barrie was knighted by King George V in 1913. Barrie's secretary from 1917 onward was Cynthia Asquith, the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. He was a close friend of Asquith, and placed great trust in her. After his death in 1937, he left nearly all of his estate to her, excluding the rights to Peter Pan. In the 1930's, Barrie met with and told stories to the young princesses, Elizabeth II and Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Gilbert Cannan was an associate of Barrie's, and his wife Mary began an affair with Cannan in 1908. Barrie found out in 1909, and demanded that Mary end it. Barrie's relationship with his wife had been unconsummated and asexual, and on these grounds Mary refused to end her relationship with Cannan. Not wishing to invite scandal with divorce, Barrie then offered Mary the option of legal seperation, with the requirement that she never see Cannan again. However, Mary refused this, so Barrie sued for divorce due to infidelity, and the divorce was granted within the year. It was a very painful period for him, so much so that a few of his friends, including H.G. Wells, banded together and implored the papers not to publish the story. Only three of dozens of papers ended up reporting about the divorce. Barrie was an acquaintance of Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, and travelled with him in 1922. The Llewelyn Davies family was very close to Barrie, and played an important role in his personal and literary life. This included Arthur Llewelyn Davies, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, George Llewelyn Davies, Jack Llewelyn Davies, Peter Llewelyn Davies, Michael Llewlyn Davies, and Nicholas Llewelyn Davies. Barrie's friendship with the family began in 1897, when he met George and John (with baby Peter) walking in Kensington Gardens. He lived nearby, and would often come over to the family house and amuse the children. He met Sylvia at a dinner party a few months later, and the two became constant companions and very close friends. Barrie invented the character of Peter Pan to entertain George and Jack - telling them stories about how their baby brother Peter could fly, which later grew into a more involved tale. The boys called Barrie "Uncle Jim," and as far as they knew, he was family. When Arthur passed away in 1907, Barrie grew even closer in the Llewelyn Davies' family lives, and began offering them financial support. After Sylvia died as well in 1910, Barrie was heartbroken, and said that they had recently become engaged to be married. Though Sylvia's will did not elude to this, she did leave him guardianship of the boys, together with a handful of others. When copying Sylvia's will, Barrie changed bits of it to be more inclusive of him in the boy's guardianship. He raised the boys until they were grown. Later, when allegations that Barrie was a paedophile emerged (based on his lifelong closeness to children, and admittance that his marriage to Mary had never been sexual), Nicholas strongly refuted this, and said that there had never been anything inappropriate about his relationship with Barrie as a child. Instead, Nicholas said that he believed Barrie to have been asexual, or "an innocent," as it was worded then, and without any sexual desire. The boys called Barrie "Uncle Jim" for the rest of their lives. Tragically, Barrie ended up living to see the deaths of two of the boys, which resulted in a deep depression and a broken heart. George was killed in World War I in 1915, and Michael drowned at school in 1921. George Frampton worked with Barrie in 1912, when he sculpted a statue of Peter Pan. However, Barrie ended up being disappointed with the end result, saying, "it doesn't show the devil in Peter." '''How Added - '''Randomly thought to add him. Category:People Category:Historical Figures Category:Writers Category:People From Scotland Category:1860 Births Category:1937 Deaths Category:James